A/N: It's this time of the year again! ;)

Actually, it wouldn't be this time of the year if it wasn't for my amazing friend & beta arabian whose help and priceless, insightful comments encouraged me to continue writing & start posting this story :] Thank you so much, Jennifer! *hugs* Also, special thanks go to the wonderful Abby, Carol, Daisy and Gabz for making me feel like I should write this story ;)

Summary: Post 4x23. After a blissful summer Damon & Elena find themselves surrounded by sad and dark secrets being revealed. While trying to deal with the regularly scheduled Mystic Falls drama of aftermaths and side-effects, they are unexpectedly confronted with Silas' new macabre plan that threatens to tear them apart forever. Damon/Elena, Klaus/Caroline, Stefan/Caroline, Jeremy/Bonnie.

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Hindsight

Chapter 1

"Eyes on the road," Elena said in a mockingly scolding voice, unbuttoning her blouse and shrugging it off her shoulders.

The drizzle outside blurred the view of faraway houses somehow adding to the coziness of the car. After a few energetic songs the radio was humming now, the lights of the cars coming from the opposite direction casting shimmering rays of light that every once in a while illuminated the road and their faces.

They had spent the better part of the summer traveling. Elena didn't want to leave Jeremy alone for too long, so instead of one long journey they settled for multiple short endeavors.

The first few trips were sentimental. "With a twist," as Damon had put it and she had laughed when he had explained the idea to her. She hadn't thought he was being serious and it was his turn to laugh when she had realized that yes, in fact, he was.

They had auspiciously gotten away with... indecent behavior in Atlanta, Denver, Chicago and it was only in New York that they had had to resort to compulsion when a museum guard had exhibited an outrageous lack of understanding for people being madly (albeit perhaps a little too madly) in love.

After revisiting the past, they had set out to visit new places and making new memories had never felt to Elena more like a dream as when they had been alone in some secluded wilderness or on the edge of a mountain above the sea; and no amount of bourbon and blood could get them drunk as effectively as those kisses they shared in silence, in blinding sunlight or in darkness, until they couldn't breathe.

"I've seen this road before, Elena, and I assure you it's not nearly as beautiful and exciting as what I'm looking at right now," Damon said without averting his eyes from her, one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching out in a recurring, playful attempt to twirl Elena's hair around his fingers.

She swatted his hand away. "I'm trying to get dressed, Damon," she said in the haughtiest tone she could muster.

"I was actually under the impression you were doing the exact opposite," Damon replied with a smirk.

Biting back a smile, Elena threw the blood-stained top onto the backseat and looked critically at a new one she had just pulled out of the bag. She was about to put it on when she noticed a stain on her bra.

"Oh no." Damon sighed in mock concern, for a moment seemingly turning his attention to the dimly lit road and glancing at the dark forests surrounding it. "Looks like you'll have to take that off too."

Elena shifted her eyes to him. "It's your fault. If we didn't stop for a snack, I wouldn't need to worry about Jeremy seeing me all covered in blood like some kind of a-"

"Vampire?" Damon offered helpfully. Elena snorted under her breath. "And what I meant by getting a snack," Damon continued, "was fetching a blood bag from the trunk, not going all rawr on a cyclist," he added with a wink.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him and then defiantly straightened up and held his gaze as she moved her hands behind her back to unclasp her bra.

The brakes screeched and before Elena managed to formulate a question Damon pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"Elena. It's the third time today you're testing or rather overestimating my self-control," he said, giving her a serious look. She raised her eyebrows and after a moment of suspenseful silence laughed when he pulled her into his arms.

Her hands flew to his shoulders and she wrapped her arms around him, exchanging a long, sizzling look with him before their lips crashed together.

"We'll never make it back home if we keep it up," Elena whispered with a giddy smile, sliding her hands underneath Damon's shirt.

She stopped her ministrations when he cupped her face in his hands. "We're home now," he said under his breath in such a warm voice that it brought the brightest smile to Elena's eyes and they both stayed completely still for a few moments, just looking at each other.

It was happening so often during those past several weeks. They would suddenly stop walking in the middle of the street, don't leave the theater after a spectacle, forget to fall asleep. He would look at her and she would look at him, and that cliché about the world disappearing and ceasing to spin or spinning too fast would come completely true and take her breath away every time.

It was the scariest thing, the only ghost of fear that haunted her when she was feeling fearless all the time lately otherwise - the realization that there was a fine line between a happy, fluttery feeling which made everything bright, and an all-consuming, ardent, greedy madness; and that they had crossed that line.

"Calling 911?" Damon asked, tightening his embrace when Elena grabbed her purse and pulled her phone out of it.

She chuckled and having typed a few words put the phone away. "Telling Jeremy not to wait up," she said, smiling against his lips and holding onto his arms as she pushed herself off the passenger's seat and sat on his lap straddling him.

Damon slid his fingers into her hair and pulled her down into a heated kiss. "Who was that bad man that corrupted you so?" He asked, wrinkling his forehead in mock concern, his mouth twitching into a lop-sided smile when Elena's hands began fumbling with his belt.

Elena pretended to search her memory to answer the question. "He said his name was Damon," she finally said in a serious tone, fighting an amused smile just as Damon was. "He was... dashing," she continued, leaning down to place a kiss on his shoulder, "gorgeous, irresistible," she whispered into his ear, trying to imitate the way he had pronounced the word. Damon smiled against her neck, grazing the exposed skin with his mouth. "He found hilarity in the lengths to which he had to go to to repeatedly save my life."

"What happened to him?"

"Would you believe it?" Elena traced the lines of his face with the tips of her fingers . "He went to Las Vegas and married some failed cheerleader he had to cheat into college because she had gone off the rails and had missed the application deadline."

Damon laughed and Elena joined in, resting her forehead against his.

After a moment of looking at each other in silence they closed their eyes and whispered "I love you" at the same time.

xxxdelenaxxx

"So how is Rome at this time of the year?" Jeremy asked, holding the phone with his shoulder while pouring himself a cup of coffee in the boarding house's kitchen.

Matt chuckled. "Hey, you promised not to make fun of me. It's enough Caroline keeps texting me if I'm ready to see a psychiatrist yet."

"Well." Jeremy smiled. "If this was 'the craziest love interest contest,' you would've beaten everyone, including my sister and that should tell you something. But you sound... happy," he added, slumping onto a couch near the fireplace and turning on his laptop.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Matt said with the faintest hint of embarrassment in his voice. "How is Elena?" he asked, hoping to avoid Jeremy asking him any more detailed questions, because he wasn't sure he would know what to say. He had troubles coming to terms with his own thoughts these days.

"You mean how are Elena and Damon, because they don't really appear as separate people anymore," Jeremy said with a sigh.

"Is it that bad?"

"No," Jeremy grimaced, sitting back and propping a pillow behind his head. "It's worse." Matt snorted. "I went along on one of their road trips and that was more than I could handle. Staying home is much better, especially that I get ridiculous amounts of presents every time they get back. Elena's still feeling bad about sending up in flames all of my stuff, you know." They both laughed briefly.

"Did you just say 'home'?" Matt prompted cautiously, a smile clear in his voice.

Jeremy was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I did," he admitted, not really able to elaborate on the subject just yet. "You know, I just... I just didn't think I'd ever see her that happy again," he added quietly with a genuine smile flickering across his face.

"That's really great to hear," Matt said in a matching tone. "So," he cleared his throat, "did you throw a party of the year yet? Now that you have the entire fancy house all to yourself?"

Jeremy smiled. "I was thinking about that. But everyone is gone for the summer. You're in Europe, Caroline and Tyler are still in Florida, April went to visit her grandparents-"

"Oh, by the way, when is Bonnie coming back?" Matt cut in.

Jeremy froze, caught off guard by the question and for a moment he thought he wouldn't be able to form a coherent answer. "I don't know," he managed to choke out, squeezing his eyes shut to trap hot tears behind his eyelids. Hope didn't make grieving any easier. Bonnie was dead and even if there was... maybe... a way-

"Is she getting along with her mom?" Matt asked, sincerely curious.

Jeremy blinked a few times, trying to regain his composure.

Suddenly a knock on the door interrupted the conversation and Jeremy couldn't be more grateful for an excuse to end the call.

The summer was coming to an end and he wouldn't be able to keep Bonnie's death a secret anymore. He didn't even know how he had managed to effectively lie to everyone for so long. But it was what Bonnie had asked him to do and he couldn't have denied her request. She had wanted her friends to have, for once, a truly happy summer, and although Jeremy knew Elena and Caroline would probably prefer the truth, he couldn't help agreeing with Bonnie that had they known, they would've never been able to experience a couple of months of perfect bliss with no fresh graves to mourn, no impending danger in sight.

The door bell rang along with another knock and Jeremy quickened his steps.

When he reached the door he pulled it open - and blinked in surprise.

xxxdelenaxxx

For the first few times he wondered if it was possible to get used to searing pain, to his lungs filling up with water, to the excruciating inability to breathe despite subconscious, desperate, pointless efforts to do so. He quickly had his answer.

It wasn't.

It hurt every single time. Every time he drowned, it felt like he was drowning for the first time. Every time was exactly the same. He lost count before he tried to keep it. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Coming back to this darkness was just as painful as sliding into the other darkness.

The first darkness was real and cold – the black safe, a cage made out of steal at the bottom of the quarry full of nightmares evoked by recurring realization that she must have gone through this kind of pain and he had allowed it, he had let her drown. It was the most persistent, conscious thought.

But the moments of clarity were rare because death would drag him into oblivion every other minute.

That was the other darkness, the one he couldn't grasp, couldn't quite remember when he would find himself back in his underwater coffin, drowning all over again. The other darkness was impenetrable. All that was there were the voices that belonged to other people, a chaos of memories over which he didn't have any control.

Sometimes between falling through the crashing waves of pain from one side to the other Stefan could catch a miniscule glimpse of a clearer image, a warm glow in someone's eyes, a whispered word, a smile...

xxxdelenaxxx

"I thought you were looking for the key," Elena said, stifling a smile when Damon trailed kisses across her neck, his hand rummaging through her purse.

"I'm multitasking," he said, almost dropping the large box that was tucked under his arm.

Elena snorted, adjusting her hold on countless shopping bags in both of her hands. "Check the other side."

Damon moved his lips to the other side of her neck.

Elena laughed under her breath. "The other side of my purse!"

"Oh." Damon pressed a lingering kiss to her lips and then drew back with a smirk. He presented Elena with the key and opened the door.

"I don't want to wake Jeremy up," Elena whispered, taking a step inside and walking past Damon who was holding the door for her. "We can leave everything downstairs-"

She trailed off and stopped abruptly in her tracks.

Jeremy was standing in the middle of the parlor, a vacuum cleaner in his hand. "Before you say anything, it wasn't me," he said, raising his hands in a defensive gesture, looking at Damon with a small smile.

The room was a disaster. Shards of glass, countless broken bottles scattered on the blood- and alcohol-stained carpets, damaged pieces of furniture and shattered lamps... from the library upstairs?

"I was going to say terrific re-décor, but if it wasn't you," Damon said with a shrug, tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at one of the paintings next to the fireplace that seemed to have been slashed in two.

"What happened, Jeremy?" Elena asked, perplexed.

The sound of laughter coming from upstairs caused Damon and Elena to exchange questioning glances.

"Stefan came back," Jeremy said and they shifted their eyes to him, "With Katherine."